Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Descent Into the Depths of the Earth”

Ezekiel sat for some time in his room, seeking answers straight from his boss.

[A sheet of notes in Ezekiel’s handwriting:]

• Should we swear to slaughter the priesthood of Lolth?
• Should we swear to bring the gems to Alserv?
• Can I call on Mike with Gate and get support for the battle? [Note: he doesn’t mean Mikael]
• Should we turn over the scroll to the sage?
• Is a 12,000 gold piece budget high enough for the scroll?
• Should we spend whatever it takes?
• Will Lolth negotiate on terms acceptable to Lawful Good?
• Is my ultimatum for her appropriate?
• Are there secret exits from the Thane?
• Can we defeat the priesthood and Lolth in one day?
• Should we save the drow slavegirl? [Note in Elwyn’s writing: Ez was worried about the half-drow working for the squid-man sage, but turns out she’s an independent contractor, not a slave. So I guess she can look after herself.]
• Access EEG shrine? [Should we? Can we?]

**

Ezekiel seemed perturbed when he rejoined us. He says the answers were not all straightforward, but what was clear is this: he and Aliana should swear to “bring the gems to Alserv” (had some discussion on what exactly those particular words could mean), and we should get the scroll for the sage. So at least that firms up our plans for the afternoon.

As far as wiping out the priesthood, that sounds about as difficult as our previous temple clearings…there’s always a handfull that run away through a back door in the chaos, and either show up at the next battle or take something important with them, or who knows what. Ez thinks we’ll have to do something with the Elder Elemental shrine at some point, but the details are not yet forthcoming.

Raven pointed out we might be able to fence some of the ropes of entangling we got off the drow, so our auction budget is a little higher than what our cash reserves can afford.

****

Wow, so much useful information! But let’s keep everything in order…

We went to the auction as planned, and no one challenged us at the border (the street was clogged with enough other people, these two ghettos probably see a lot of traffic).

The Choral Cafe looks pretty tavernish, and there were a handful of other people there for the auction (including some drow and gnomes, plus a bull-headed man that I’m on the fence about whether we call them people. Lydia says yes, Clatriel says no). In the corner we spotted the humans we think Master Pembreg warned us about (did ge warn them if us, I wonder? Only for a price…) Ezekiel casually scanned the room, and said there was nobody he would trust with an item of such potential danger.

I have not been to many auctions, so it was interesting in that regard. Master Pembreg sold a painting that I gather was of a male drow socialite, so it’s appropriateness is totally up in the air (they carried it away wrapped in cloth, so I never actually saw it). I think the minotaur bought an ivory lizard, and some other things came and went, but no one wanted the kua’toan incense (I felt almost bad for them).

Finally, Master Pembreg mentioned the scroll, and we watched everybody else put in bids until the gnome clearly got out-priced, and started just enjoying the show with his drink.

Ezekiel started bidding then. The human woman obviously wanted this scroll badly…she’s the one who kept switching the price to higher denominations. Once in a while, Ezekiel glanced at Aliana and Raven to make sure his math was right, but every time we were still under budget, so he kept inching over the woman.

At last we must have hit her budget, because she couldn’t top us…just glare. She gave a look to her two male underlings (I guess they were all clerics? But I really couldn’t tell to look at them) and they slipped out the door, quite ominously.

The auction wrapped up, and everybody came forward to pay what they had promised, and collect what they owned. Ezekiel took the scroll, and we started back to the inn.

But nothing is ever easy. We got about as far as the big square where several ghettos feed into one another, when this drow woman started screaming that Ezekiel had insulted Lolth. (I mean, he has, but we’ve tried to keep it to private conversations.)

Ezekiel handed Raven the scroll behind his back, while assuring her he had done no such thing, in his best cleric voice.

Raven slipped to the back of the party, then into the crowd milling along a nearby wall. I lost sight of him quickly, partly because I was trying to follow his example…but by then a patrol had come up and stood to block us from moving. I may be small, but I haven’t practiced how to not stick out in a crowd.

Meanwhile, Ezekiel was behaving strangely. He insisted that the lady should know he’d never do such a thing (whatever it was), and she could depend on him as her best friend to tell the truth. I glanced at Aliana, but I guess Fetafencer is like Tressarian and he can’t dispel magic while he’s in a sheath.

The lady couldn’t even keep her story straight. First she said Ez had insulted Lolth (not “our mother of the legs”?); then she demanded he give her the paper of nasty things he wrote about Lolth (Ezekiel pulled out his journal, but insisted it was writing to do with quite different things. What nasty things was she thinking, like “Lolth loves kittens and flowers and adopting orphans”?). Then she told him to give back the paper he stole from Lolth, which is changing the story so much surely even the patrol noticed.

Mikael picked up a stone from the road (I saw him bend over because he’s so tall, but I don’t think anyone else did), and then held out a little statue of Lolth, saying Ezekiel was actually a big fan, and he even had Lolth memorabilia in his backpack (I think it was modeled after the big statue in the square). Either Mikael was really persuasive, or the patrol was getting tired of the whole incident, but they gave us an inspection (making us as uncomfortable as possible, of course, especially Master Oaklock) until even the lady had to admit we didn’t seem to have anything like what she was describing on our persons.

They told us each to move along, and once we were far enough down the road (in the opposite direction to the lady), Mikael smacked Ezekiel’s hand and Aliana ducked us into a quiet alleyway where she could draw Fetafencer and cast dispel on Ezekiel.

The moment she did, Ezekiel started spluttering about how that lady wasn’t *really* his best friend, and he felt all gross inside. Agnar muttered a comment to me that I thought was rather witty, but I’m glad only Heiron and I heard it. Anyway, we finally made it back to the inn – maybe a little concerned about Raven when he wasn’t there, but we knew we couldn’t find him even if we tried.

All was well when he joined us not too long afterward…with some very interesting news. He headed straight to the house of the sage Oolachrithon (though an old, blue-skinned lady tried to accost him on the way), and once outside his house, decided to pause and look over the scroll quick before handing it over. Sounds like we all had hoped to copy it in some way before selling it, but things didn’t quite work out that way. Fortunately, Raven has a keen memory, so here is the gist that he got from the scroll.

Long ago, the Earth Mother destroyed the Elder Elemental God, shattering him into fragments that rained down on the earth. These fragments tainted their surroundings, forming “places of power” like the ones we raided in the lands of the giants. (This all being interpreted from poetic language that Raven could only half-read. Good thing the scroll was written in several languages, one of them Flan, which Raven apparently has a smattering of.)

The bad news is that Beori didn’t 100% destroy the EEG, so it could be possible to break the seals on his side-dimensional prison and unleash him on the world (with all the horrific chaos that would bring).

Mysteriously enough, the ritual seems to require four “elemental keys” placed around another stone. If the Alserv are planning to do a ritual of this kind, we can only assume they have the worst intentions…even if their worship of the EEG is mostly a political move.

Raven took a moment longer to parse through another section, and discovered something of the utmost importance. If the stone at the center of the ritual, among the elemental keys, is dedicated to the EEG, then the prison will shatter and whatever vestiges of him remain will be unleashed on the world. But if the stone at the center if dedicated to Beori, then the cracks of the prison will be reforged, as it were, and the prisoner locked in forever.

Importantly, the “last key placed” will cost the soul of the creature placing it. Raven says he’s not sure about that part, that it was all euphemism and fragments of poetry and idiom, which he’s really not familiar with in Flan (and the other scroll languages were even worse). But it makes sense to me this is why no Good forces have gone all the way and completed the Earth Mother’s work (that and a lack of “elemental keys,” perhaps).

Anyway, it’s becoming clear why Ezekiel was told to go ahead and acquire the gems. We could be at a turning point in the history of the world. I feel…like a glass dish balanced on the edge of a table. Which way will the breeze blow?

When he had gotten everything he could from the scroll, Raven went in and sold it to the sage, as we had discussed. He says the sage even paid extra to hear about the human party who were so desperate to get their hands on it. The money doesn’t quite cover what we spent at the auction (Father said auctions and games of chance were dangerous things; they carry you away with the moment), but it is a nice cushion. And if we all get eaten by unfathomable evil in the near future, we won’t need money anyway! (Clatriel said that’s not funny.)

**

Ezekiel and Mikael secreted themselves in one of the rooms with the paving stone, to try and make a consecrated object to Beori. It’s good we have Ez with us, as he can kind of liaison across deities. Wonder what Yeti is up to these days…

Raven went out to do some “shopping.” He didn’t invite any of us to come…probably because he knows he’s faster than most of the threats around here, and if one of us was there cringing and hiding our eyes, it wouldn’t help much, anyway.

Clatrial says she hasn’t slept once since we got here with all the screaming and banging and strange creature sounds. Agnar said his snoring would drown all that out, and she was welcome to try our room sometime. Before she could think of a proper response, I pointed out it was already pretty crowded, and who would he kick out for her? I think it just as well Aliana came into the room at that moment before things got out of hand.

She says Ez is moody about potentially handing the gems over to Alserv. We’ll attack that bridge when we cross it.

****

Today the liaison lady from House Alserv brought us a bag of tokens to allow passage across the bridge (and told us not to open it until she left to avoid rousing suspicion in any onlookers). In return, Ezekiel swore to “bring the stones to Alserv” (he thought long and hard about the exact wording he should commit to, since he said he’ll follow the letter of the contract and no more, with “people of this kind.” So that’s a vote for calling drow people; election’s still contested on minotaurs).

Ez paid our inn bill a few days in advance, and we headed upstairs to prep for action. When he came to his, Aliana’s, and Clatriel’s room, however, the door was cracked open and some drow girl was poking under the mattresses. Raven heard Ez exclaim, and dashed over, and pretty soon, most of us had our heads shoved in the entryway to see what was up.

She wasn’t one of the inn staff, so Raven had her turn out her pockets while I hid behind everyone and switched to the ring of truth.

She had Ezekiel’s writing kit, and a knife of Clatriel’s that folds out a tiny pair of scissors…and also a bundle of letters detailing sordid liaisons between a priestess of Lolth and an assassin for House Alserv. Ezekiel talked with her a bit, and learned her name is K’shetsra, and nobody sent her to our room specifically…she just wanted to make a living.

Naturally, he tried to recruit her (Aliana says she’s half-elf, and Ez has a soft spot for those), and said that if she goes to stay with Telek the mad priest, he has enough food for both of them, and we’ll take them both to the surface when we leave. He kept the bundle of letters but sent her off with the rest of the things that seemed to be hers (a pair of earrings and a switchblade, for instance). I hope nothing bad happens to Telek (whom I have never met).

We double checked the other rooms (glad I keep most of my stuff on me at all times…but the other rooms were untouched) and returned for a final strategy session. Ezekiel and Aliana showed us a little token, like a broach, in the shape of a sword, which I guess will get us across the “Flying Bridge” into the inner sanctum of drowness. The velvet bag also contained tokens of a gold spider, which I guess will get us into the Thane? The Fane? There’s no point hanging around, so we’re leaving now.

Forest arms receive thee.

Find the previous entry here.

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Descent Into the Depths of the Earth”

Things are beginning to move. A lady showed up in ornate armor, and spoke with Raven and Ezekiel for a while (she paid the Captain to not listen in). Raven says she called the sphere over Istivin a “growth,” and she seemed to find it amusing? when Ez said he wouldn’t mind attacking Lolth. She finally told us to wait while they concocted a plan for us – to get us into the Thane of Lolth to disable the sphere, and restore Alserv’s fortunes (“they” being Eclavdra, who is apparently back and in charge of the house again, even though evidence suggested we killed her in the Fire Giant castle. I guess someone cared enough to spend a wish on her?). Aliana gave the lady quite a withering stare when she kissed Ezekiel, and she left with kind of a smirk.

After lunch, Ezekiel took everyone upstairs to talk strategy. Lydia said she thinks she could teleport a mile away if necessary – the barrier just dampens teleportation – so I gave her the Sword of Lyons. It’s less useful against elf-types, but if we get in a pinch, Lydia’s our best chance to pull off a do-over.

While we were all still talking, a messenger arrived for us from a new player – Oolachrithon the sage. He sent a tablet that basically said we had dealings with him, to allow us to visit his establishment for further details. His messenger (Ezekiel says she was half-drow) led us to his place on the border with the Ghetto of Scholars (I only know because he happened to have a map of Erelhei’Cinlu on his wall, and I did some rough estimating while Ez and Raven were talking with him).

As for the sage, he wasn’t what any of us expected, I think. The door was opened to us by an old man with absolutely nothing behind his eyes. Except that he was breathing, you could hardly tell he was alive. He let us into a study of sorts, with bookshelves lined with books, and sitting at the desk – one of the purple-skinned, tentacle-faced squid-men. I’m not sure, but the fact he shook hands with perfectly normal-shaped hands might make the overall effect worse.

However, he was very polite, and stuck strictly to business. He says he is a “specialist” in demi-human history, theology, and myth. At the moment, he’s very “curious” to learn details about a sacrifice to the Elder Elemental Deity (not just a ritual, but a sacrifice). He is prepared to pay handsomely for information in that regard, however we come upon it.

He even offered some useful information for free. It seems when Eclavdra wanted to be, not just Matriarch of the Alserv, but Queen of the Drow as a whole, the clergy of Lolth opposed her pretty strongly…hence the Alservs’ dalliance with another deity. However, Sage Oolachrithon suspects that a shrine to the EEG was already on the property of the Alserv, thus giving them something to investigate when they wanted a new patron. A lot of this is speculation, of course, but it seems to fit with the rest of our information.

I guess he noticed me examining his map, and seeing as we were newcomers to the city, he gave us a few more useful details. The Noble Houses live on estates on a plateau beyond the city, reached by crossing the “Flying Bridge” over the “Pitchy Flow”…and then the Fane of Lolth is even beyond that. In short, there’s no way outsiders like us are going to get in there without some kind of invitation, so I guess it’s good we got to work on that.

While we work to engraciate ourselves to House Alserv (much as I hate the expression), the sage gave us another lead to pursue. Apparently someone has a scroll reputed to be about the EEG, and would hopefully be willing to sell it. The “someone” is called Pembreg the Fence, a halfling who lives (or at least does business) in the Ghetto of Chattel. The sage gave Ezekiel a token to indicate he has legitimate business in the next ghetto, so we should be able to at least talk to this Pembreg. It would be interesting to see who else is interested in this scroll…I wonder if they also will be working through agents. That is why the sage involved us, after all – because he would have trouble conducting his business personally? And if anything goes wrong – he never met us… They say his kind are at war with the drow…even more than the elves are.

At least it’s good to have another direction to pursue. Ezekiel needed another chat with Raven and Aliana, but when he’s done, we’ll ask the Captain for a guide.

**

This place is practically boiling over with “excitement.” On our way to visit the halfling (with one of the drow kitchen boys leading us), we passed two demons in the street (I didn’t know them by sight, but Ez and Aliana explained afterwards).

One of them looked like a lady of ill repute, slapped on top of a snake body and embellished with extra arms (I think she had six, but I was trying not to look). She tyok one look at Ezekiel, grinned, and reached for some kind of sword at her “waist.”

She didn’t get that far, though, because her companion noticed. He was a man-shape, as tall as a modest hut, with huge bat-wings looming over him from his shoulders (so, different from the giant two-legged bat we saw earlier), and openly carrying a whip and a sword. As soon as the snake-woman made her move, he back-handed her so hard she left a crack in the plaster of the building across the street.

Ezekiel gave some kind of professional nod, and hustled us on, telling everyone to stay calm.

A little further on, the kitchen boy led us through a square of some kind, with a statue in the middle that Ezekiel says is Lolth – a giant spider with a female elf face. It seemed even more crowded than other places, maybe because on one corner, a male drow was standing on some crates and calling out to the crowd milling around.

At first he just said to beware the enemies of Lolth, so I was trying to look small and forgettable as we passed, but then he said something that made us qll turn and look. He mentioned keys – but not keys – jewels, but not jewels…air, earth, fire. Those we definitely knew about, especially after the message Ezekiel received recently. The preacher said something about trapping the “ancient enemy” – “one and three and eight and four” – and he got really upset and wailed about a danger to the “eight-legged mother.”

About that time, a patrol (of lady drow, naturally) made for him, but I guess he used a dimension door or invisibility or something, because he vanished, much to the irritation of the commander. Ezekiel asked some questions, and learned the preacher has been doing this for a few weeks. Gotta check my notes to see how the timeline matches up (if I decide it’s important enough). At the very least, it suggests something Big is going down.

Finally we reached our destination. I wouldn’t have suspected it if we hadn’t engaged a guide…the windows are all boarded up, and the door looks like it used to have one of those top-half windows, but it’s all boarded up now, too. It even seems to have more cobwebs than usual draped all over the building (normal-sized cobwebs, fortunately, but lots of them…I wonder what that suggests about the owner’s loyalties…).

Our guide let us right in, and the door chimed as he opened it, so before long the proprietor came to greet us. The room looks empty and abandoned, but the proprietor obviously keeps busy…his little suit is well-tailoredand embroidered, with decoration all over his jacket and pants. It seems in a place like this, someone called “the Fence” does well for himself.

Ezekiel took him aside and explained our interest in a particular scroll. Master Pembreg said it would be auctioned off in two days’ time, at the Corral Cafe, and we got the kitchen boy to show us where that is, so we can find it on our own when the time comes.

It’s good Ezekiel isn’t as cynical as I am. He asked Master Pembreg if anyone else was interested in the scroll, and when the halfling waited for a bribe before saying anything, and then said, with a sly gleam in his eye, that a group of surfacers was interested, I was feeling put out. But Ezekiel dragged out of him that it wasn’t us, but rather a trio of humans, led by a woman – maybe named Turisk? They have something to do with serving a demon named Grazt, but Ezekiel says much of that is unconfirmed.

When we were done with the boy’s services, he ran back to the inn, and we followed more slowly. I think we were all glad to be off the streets, and after lunch we did some more private comparing of notes. Clatriel says any city that lets filthy undead run around in packs is…well, I’m not sure what all of the words were.

Mikael says we definitely want to kinda if we can get the scroll kinda thing out of the hands of any like bad guy kinda people. That got us talking about what kind of people would want to learn about the EEG anyway, and that made us wonder why Master Oolachrithon wants the scroll. Is it scholarly interest? The Alserv would probably want it for more nefarious reasons.

The human trio with scythes were having dinner in the common room today. Ezekiel squinted at them, and said they didn’t look like demon worshippers. And you’d think in a city like this, they wouldn’t mind showing it.

****

Well…another Alserv lady visited today. You’d think for all her jewelry and the precious metal embroidered on her dress, she could afford more fabric.

Anyway, she took us into a private conference room and shared some information. In the first place, the sphere “growing” over Istivin is not them, but Lolth (which matches what we’ve learned elsewhere). She also said Lolth has done this before, other places…maybe even on other worlds. How did those people stop it? She didn’t get into that…

Her proposal was, in exchange for getting us into Lolth’s domain to “discuss” the sphere with Her, we would bring certain things to Alserv…specifically four gems that “represent” elemental power. Ezekiel immediately spilled almost all we knew about the gems for the nodes (which I guess might lower Alserv’s guard if we freely share information, but it seemed uncautious to me) and the lady said maybe we could ask Lolth where they are during our “conversation.”

Ezekiel seemed leery about bringing the gems, so the lady suggested an exchange that could be just as good, which is for us to kill all the priesthood of Lolth within the Great Thane (I guess it’s like a temple?). She said it was the priesthood that dissed Eclavdra (not necessarily Lolth herself), and by “all” she means hunting down every last one within the temple. That sounds more like how we’re used to operating, and we certainly hold no love for priests of Lolth, but I still don’t like it.

Finally, the lady said that to make the contract good, Ezekiel and Aliana must swear to their God. She understands that that would be a bond she could trust, and she implied her house is risking a lot by letting outsiders into the inner sanctum, as it were.

Ezekiel said we would need to discuss it among ourselves until the day after tomorrow (the day after the auction, so we can try for the scroll as well). He said he will consult his God. And I guess since she was adding elements to the contract, he felt like upping the ante, also…and asked about seeing a “place of power,” maybe, or learning about the rituals the Alserv practice as part of the deal. To which the lady said, if we bring her the gems, we can witness the ritual where they are used…which to me feels like being a sacrificial victim…

We will see. After the lady left, we went to our rooms for more discussion. I don’t like it. Lydia says I don’t like anything. Heiron says he hopes we’re home by winter.

Find the previous entry here.

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Descent Into the Depths of the Earth”

We have reached the city. The wall is black stone, and at least thirty feet tall, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the cavern is a mile high or more. The gate is bronze, covered with spikes, and decorated (if that’s even the right word) with faces that Ezekiel tells us are kinds of demons, and their rulers.

Guards stood by doors at the far end of the passageway, and we gave their leader our names, and the mercenary cover story. She told us to stay in the Ghetto of Foreigners unless we had express permission from someone to visit another ghetto, and when Ezekiel made noises like a cleric, she mentioned all the temples for “outsider gods” are along the Street of Lies.

Finally, they let us into the city. Erelhei’Cinlu. It’s……..big.

So the first thing that jumps out is that all kinds of people are here…and all kinds of non-people. Humans, trolls, kua’toa…and lots of things that Ezekiel says are from the lower plains. Most of the ghouls and bugbears aren’t wearing green cloaks, but it’s not universal. I think I even saw a lizard-man, in addition to the lizards that they use instead of horses down here. Some richly-dressed drow went charging by on beasts I don’t even know how to describe, and the whole crowd dove left and right to get out of the way. Good thing our group all dove the same direction.

The paint they use for the signs must be mushroom- or mold-based or something, and through the red lenses they almost seem to glow with an inner light. And that’s about the extent of the prettiness in the city. Continue reading →

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Descent Into the Depths of the Earth”

We reached the Vault of the Drow about midday today (I would guess). I wonder if Tomlin would consider it a sight worth seeing. The entance starts by raising the ceiling, until you feel as though you’re walking through a ravine in some windless, midnight mountains. Then the walls fall away to either hand, and the whole expanse of the plain rolls away into the distance.

Rather than absolutely dark, there are points of light in the ceiling high above us. I suppose they must be crystals like we’ve seen before, but what powerful ones! In the center of the dome lies a purple orb, something like a weak moon, so that we can at least see to walk around, although not much more than that.

Ezekiel put the strange red cups or glasses over his eyes, and they stuck to his face. He says he can see just as far as he could outside, and pointed out a tower like a pillar, directly ahead, even before Aliana did.

I wish I could properly describe the look of this place. There’s lots more important stuff to write about today, but I can’t get over the colors, the feel. It’s like walking on an alien world. Ez passed the glasses around, so we could each take a look. (Heiron remembered I was somewhere, and let me have a turn.) The glasses really do transform the landscape. The colors…the fungi and lichen growing by the road seem to glow, while veins of crystals that weren’t powerful enough to show up in thr dark suddenly gleam with all kinds of colors. No…not all kinds…mostly cool, fungus colors: blue, mauve, purple, sickly green or brown. Some red and gold, but not like a flower-red…like a mold-red.

I can’t quite explain. Maybe it’s because there’s hardly a sound, except the echo of our footfalls. No bugs, no birds, not even the wind stirring leaves. It makes me think of the lady in that play I got to see one festival, the lady who prodded her husband into killing the king. She was so pretty…but after that scene, you couldn’t get out of your mind what she had done, the blood on her hands. (Clarence had nightmares after that play.)

Anyway, it’s quite the sight to see. Any other place, I’d say it was worth the trip. Continue reading →

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Descent Into the Depths of the Earth”

We stayed at this campsite for a couple days so Master Oaklock could practice a technique with Heiron. I think they both enjoyed thinking about “normal” things for a bit. Heiron’s come a long way since we’ve known him.

Unfortunately, there’s bad news, too. Ezekiel asked Lydia to teleport back to Haven with a note (perhaps something to do with the node-gems, but he didn’t say so). She meditated for a moment, and told us that there’s some kind of arcane interference that won’t let her through. It’s hard to say if this place is shielded, like the dragon’s lair was shielded from scrying, or if we’re just too far underground for it to work. Lydia says the distance shouldn’t make a difference, since after all you can teleport between different planes of existence. Ezekiel took the opportunity to curse the demons who made him vulnerable to clerical magic…I think mostly out of professional courtesy. Master Oaklock asked Lydia to explain some things in more detail, and they spent quite a lot of time muttering in the corner, and borrowed one of my spare journals.

****

We came across a pit with two bodies in it. Raven agrees with me that there was probably a loose cover over the pit at one time. The bodies were a human and a drow – the human wearing a cloak of the exact same bright green that we saw among the property of the squid-men.

Ezekiel asked Raven to climb into the pit to check things out, and he told us the two had been garrotted (within the last couple days), and plundered of their weapons, jewelry, and belts. By the number and size of footprints, it was a huge band of small, bipedal creatures. While I was scanning the surroundings for any such creatures, Ezekiel leaned over and raised the human to life. Continue reading →

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Descent Into the Depths of the Earth”

We passed through an enormous cave, where we caught glimpses of windows and doorways opening off of ledges high above our heads. There must have been ramps or stairs somewhere…unless drow can fly, on top of everything else. On the cavern floor, on our level, we passed a half-dozen lizards – the size of horses, with tethers of their heads, and some kind of tackle lying beside them. They were eating fungus, so I guess some creatures find it palatable. Mikael wanted to make friends with them, but we didn’t want their owners mad at us, so we pursuaded him to move along.

I think Lydia is also homesick for some real food (though Ezekiel points out we’ve only been down here a few days). Rations are all fine and good (and Raven cooks them fantastically), but she was waving her fingers over her food to alter the taste or something (I didn’t know that was a thing). Raven tried some, and told us not to bother.

****

The path ran down into water today. Fortunately, before we examined it for long, a fish man came flapping out of the darkness toward us. Imagine a fish body dropped onto skinny little frog legs, with little flappy arms. Happily, it was much smaller than the slime trail we crossed yesterday, so we didn’t mistake it for an abalath. Continue reading →

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Descent into the Depths of the Earth”

We walked all day with Driptz.

He sticks to the back, where the light isn’t so intense, even though Raven made him goggles out of some cloth. I think there’s more than one reason our kinds don’t typically get along too well.

The way is treacherous, sometimes cut by two foot terraces or steps, sometimes slicked with slime or something worse. We came across the corpse of something humanoid, but it’s hard to tell what because the skin is totally transparent. Mr. Drippy says an “abalath” can do that – they’re a fish with tentacles that change skin to be breathable underwater. Apparently that’s not so great if you’re above water. He says they can also mind-control you, and unlike normal fish they can slide around out of the water. Sure enough, a few yards from the corpse we found a slime trail wider than I am tall, crossing our path to duck into a side crevice. Drippy led the way in wiping the slime off his shoes after we crossed it. I have no more words for the creatures down here…the crazy crypto-zoology of the underworld. Continue reading →

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Descent Into the Depths of the Earth”

I always say the adventuring life is days of soft boredom punctuated by moments of sheer panic. Today made up for our couple days of toiling along ledges beside blackness.

First off, we heard a group of rats running somewhere. Unfortunately, the echoes of this underground space made it so we couldn’t tell where they were coming from. We thought if they were running from something (unusual for so many to travel together, after all) we wouldn’t like the something, either.

I was assessing our rear to make sure nothing was sneaking up on us when It happened. “It” being that I had a feeling that the ghostly elf lady from the Temple of Elemental Evil was standing right behind me – so I whipped around, but it was just Clatrial, so then I felt better. But almost at the same moment, Ezekiel started yelling the most vile things and ran off into the darkness ahead of us. Raven also ran off, while Agnar and Heiron stood still, shaking their heads a little – clearly shocked at what Ezekiel was saying. That was “It.” Continue reading →

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Descent Into the Depths of the Earth”

Had a bit quieter afternoon. The path continued without any passable off-shoots, eventually opening out into a vast cavern. The ceiling was so high our lights couldn’t reach it, and ten or twelve yards to one side, the slab of rock we walked on dropped into a chasm. Off in the distance, things glowed – like some of the sea creatures we’ve seen in murals…likely one of the strange fungi they have down here.

On the edge of the drop-off sat a pyramid of black stone, probably 120 feet tall. Some kind of worn-down path led to it, but I’m sure it hadn’t been used for centuries. I’ve never seen so much dust piled up in one place…there’s no wind down here.

Mikael had summoned his rock elemental for extra manpower, so Ezekiel insisted we investigate the pyramid. He said it smelled like vampires…although all I smelled was something like dry, dry animal leavings.

We disturbed the dust on the path to the pyramid, and hesitated outside the black, yawning doorway to check for traps. Ezekiel finally stepped forward with his cleric senses up, and cast light into the central chamber of the pyramid. We all jumped a little, I think, when a cloud of bats – millions, probably – swarmed out of the pyramid. They poured out of the door, and from some opening on the opposite side, rising like a dark cloud above the pyramid and disappearing into the invisible space of the cavern. Continue reading →